Sweet Hellos & Sad Goodbyes
by SpiritGoddass
Summary: A women falls through the rift claiming to be Jacks wife,why is Jack greeting her with the barrel of his gun instead of open arms? Jack learns a long buried secret from his past and realises some truths are better left unsaid... minor janto
1. Chapter 1

**An alternate ending to S1 Ep- Country side- will be a short story, with possible expansion if it receives good feedback.**

**Jack POV- **

Jack was sitting in his office at the hub, it was quiet except for the usual hum of the devices that surrounded the hub and the gentle trickling of water coming the tower. It had been a rough 24 hours and not just for him, but his entire team, especially for Gwen. So naturally he was drowning it out with a very strong brand of scotch. These were the times he wished he could sleep so he didn't have to deal with the guilt that always seemed to find him no matter the situation, whether it was his fault or not. And with the guilt came memories he'd rather bury.

The guilt of recruiting Gwen was weighing heavy on his mind; he couldn't believe he'd dragged someone so beautiful and caring into this life, this job that promised an early death sentence to anyone who dared take it. He briefly considered slipping her an amnesia pill, but immediately pushed it aside, he couldn't bear the thought of losing her, of not seeing her every day. He was falling for her and he knew it was only a matter of time before he tried to act on it. Of course he knew that everyone thought he was the love im and leave im type, but he wasn't really. Or perhaps he should say, hadn't always been that type.

He could remember everything about _her_ and that was the problem, no matter how many decades or centuries past he knew _her_ face would always plague him. He knew why this was, it was because of what had happened the last time he saw _her_ and that was the punch line. He'd seen things people here on earth could not imagine in their wildest dreams, travelled through all of time and yet if he could go back to one moment, it would be that night. The final night.

Knowing what he knew now, knowing he'd never see _her_ again, he would've told _her_ that he forgave _her_, that he loved _her_ and that he never blamed _her_ for Aurora's death. But he knew he would never have that chance, so he could only pray that _she_ somehow knew, in that way of hers.

He was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of the cog door opening, surprised he looked at his pocket watch, 1:15am. What was one of his team doing here, in the early hours of the morning when he'd given them three days off?

He strolled out of his office onto the balcony and grabbed the railing while he peered over the side to look down into the main area, curious as to who was here and why. He spotted Gwen's raven colored hair, she was sitting at her desk with her back to him, hunched over with her neck resting in her palm, not doing anything but staring at her blank computer screen.

He heard himself let out a long sigh and strolled down the stairs towards her, he had a feeling he knew why she was here. He should've finished that last glass of scotch, it was going to be a long night!

To be continued…

TTFN!


	2. Chapter 2

Jack POV

He pulled up a chair beside Gwen and sat down. The first thing he noticed were the tear streaks on her face and the redness surrounding her eyes.

"You okay?" He said

"I'm okay, rough week that's all."

"But if something wasn't okay you'd tell me, right? He pried.

For instance, if a cannibalistic psychopath tried to eat you and maybe whispered something in your ear, that maybe you were having a hard time accepting."

That gave Gwen a smile , he loved when she smiled, especially when he caused it. He was kind a surprised she was here though, he would've thought she'd be at home with Rhys or had taken-up Owens invitation to drink them-selves into oblivion, but he was also glad she had instead chosen to come back to the hub, back to him.

"I guess I just needed some space to clear my head."

"Well I'm glad you came here"

An emotion he couldn't quite catch flitted across her face, he wondered why it had been there at all.

"Got any vodka?" She asked, her head looking around, as if expecting it to be in sight.

"Sure, I like to keep my options open!"

He gave her a smile and stood while offering her his hand fully knowing she'd accept , he kept hold of it until they reached his office and Jack had to let go so he could retrieve the wanted bottle from where he'd stashed it. When Gwen saw where it was she raised her eyebrows at him.

"If I don't hide it, Owen fleeces it while I'm not looking." He explained

He grabbed two shot glasses from his desk draw and sat down on the couch beside Gwen. He dutifully un-screwed the lid and poured till it was at the very brim and Gwen raised her glass as he did.

"To our sanity, may we always remember what's right and never think of what we found in the countryside while where eating. Cheers!" He said with wistful smile.

"I will drink to that."

2 hours later…

Gwen POV

Gwen was laughing hysterically at some joke she couldn't quite remember Jack telling but still knowing it must have been funny, as all his previous ones had been. They'd eventually graduated to the floor at some point and were sprawled out next to one another, the bottle of Vodka long since gone, lay abandon a few feet from them.

As their hysterics died down and there breathing became normal once again Jack turned on his side so he was facing her. He had a look in his eye for a moment and stared at her but at the same time wasn't really seeing her.

She recognised this look as he had done it numerous times before, it was like he was remembering something he'd forgotten, but as usual it fled and left behind a sombre looking Captain, watching it happen reminded her of the ghost machine. One minute you were there, then you weren't, but after a few minutes you returned to reality and everything dawned on you once again.

"Don't know about you but I'm knackered. Actually what is the time, you don't have a clock in here?" She asked as she yawned tiredly

"Hang on, let me see." He replied as he reached into his waistcoat to pull out his stopwatch and check for her.

"It's about, oh its 4:17." She could hear the surprise in his voice

"What! Oh shit Rhys is going to be pissed. I told him I'd be home by midnight."

She resigned herself to the fact she was going to have face an angry Rhys and if she was honest with herself she didn't care. That was a problem in its self, but she put it to the back of her mind like she did so often with things these days and promised herself she'd think it over tomorrow, when the hangover she was sure to have cleared.

"Are you even sober enough to drive me home Captain?" She said, eyeing him up and down

"Are, the beauty of not being from around here. I assure you I'm quite decent" As he said this, he sent her a cocky grin to go with the insinuation he'd just thrown her way.

Not giving him the satisfaction of making her blush she slowly pushed herself up from the ground, not realising she'd just given Jack a perfect view of her backside as she did so.

"Well you better get me home then."

With grace a man his size shouldn't posse's he jumped up from the ground and grabbed his grey military coat off the hook.

"You right to go?" He asked her as he put his coat around his shoulders.

"Yeah just let me go grab my bag." She told him

As they rode the invisible left together up the water tower she wondered exactly where he parked the SUV. She got her answer though when he casually waltzed across the sidewalk and pressed the beeper to unlock the alarms on the SUV and got in. She should've been surprised that he would park it not 10 yards away from the water tower on the footpath, she should've been appalled that he just casually pulled the parking tickets off the window and dumped them in the trash can he'd parked next too. But she wasn't, she did idly wonder if they did that where he came from though. Wherever that was, but she knew wasn't likely they (the team) would ever find out. Not that it made a difference, they couldn't exactly get 'their' if they wanted to. At least she didn't think they could, she thought wryly. With Torchwood you never knew.

As she got in the passenger seat she thought that maybe while he was slightly inhibited, she might be able to perhaps catch him off guard for once and thought maybe tonight she would get lucky. She knew she would have to be careful with what she asked him or he would clam up and not say anything, which was easier said than done in her own inhibited state.

"So got any advice on the relationship front about what to say; to angry boyfriends when you promised them one tiny thing, and instead, did the exact opposite?"

"Well you could always try the 'I lost track of time'."

"Yeah… I think I've done that a few to many times already." She sighed and pushed her fringe out of her face.

"You know I once had a boyfriend who never asked me a single question. You wanna know why?"

"No actually I don't because I don't want to hear another story about your…"

"Okay, okay. But I had really good punch line to follow, you would've loved it.!" He swore with a big smile on his handsome face.

"Have you ever had a serious relationship?" She exclaimed

"Sure, I mean; there was Adele and..." His brow suddenly furrowed

"And?" She enquired

He cleared his throat before answering her. She sensed that his mind had retreated to the past and wondered if he'd ever share with her what he was thinking about when it happened. But even in her intoxicated state, she knew this conversation was over before it had even started.

Jack POV

"There have been others." He grunted in response

"Of course there have." She replied condescendingly

He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt the need to defend himself. And in the morning that's exactly what he would tell himself.

"You know, I was married once. He practically yelled

"In fact, I'm technically, probably, still am."

Obviously surprised her head whipped around towards him.

"You are, too who?" She exclaimed surprised and a little too loud for her liking.

"Well, no one around here. I don't know it was a long time ago. Just forget I said anything."

But he knew that wouldn't stop her, he'd already caught her interest. This was the exact reason he never told them anything. You tell them one insignificant thing, a small detail that doesn't really even compare with the rest of his past, and all of sudden they expect you to tell them everything. Or at least that was what he told himself. That was how he 'slept at night', or didn't in his case.

"Oh come on Jack, you said she wasn't from around here. Who's it going to hurt; I promise I won't tell the others!" She said hurriedly, afraid she'd lose her opportunity

Sighing to him-self, he turned it over in his head and came to the conclusion she had, it wasn't going to hurt anyone. Except him! Well, what's another mistake in a long life of many he thought? He steeled himself for the conversation that was to come and took a deep breath; all the while Gwen was sitting there waiting patiently for him to begin.

"It's been over a hundred years and I can still see her face as clearly as I did then. God, she was beautiful, but not in the supermodel kind of way. She just was, everything she did, everything she touched had beauty surrounding it. Though I admit, I did spend an awful long time staring at her arse, before we got together of course and sometimes after.

What do you humans say? Oh right, 'the girl next door'." He said, already getting lost in his memory

"Yep, that was her. It wasn't love at first sight, she thought I was a pretty boy used to getting my own way. We'd lived as neighbours for over five years, before I even had the courage to ask her out and boy was I surprised.

"She said; what took you so long?"

We were together for a few years but something... happened and I changed. She said she didn't recognise me anymore and that was that. We went our separate ways.

It had been about three years when we met up again. She joined the tim… the are travel agency I was with, scared the hell out of me too. I was so surprised to see her, hmm it was like universe had brought us together again.

"You know, I never did ask her how she ended up there, guess I got side tracked.

"We just sorta picked up where we left off. I asked her to marry me only a year after we got back together, everyone was so shocked. People, where I'm… from, don't get married very often like they do here. It was a rare thing indeed, but that's just how it was."

He was getting to the hard bit now and it was difficult to tell her the rest because he was going to have to sensor a lot, not needing her to know about the time agency and everything that came with it. But he had a feeling he would tell her one day, but this was enough for now.

"We… we had a daughter. She was everything to us. We'd both come from not pleasent pasts and wanted her to have everything we never did. So we moved to a secluded 'country' type place; it had lake and wildlife, fruit trees, apple grass…"

"_"

"I know it must be hard, but please don't ask." He said without pause

"Go ahead" she said timidly

He paused mid breath, and took a deeper one instead.

"When she was six I went away on a job and left her and her mother at home. But when I got back there wasn't a home left to go too." He whispered with his voice thick with emotion. He really shouldn't have had that last drink, he was starting to lose his focus after all.

"You don't have to continue!" Gwen said hurriedly, suddenly regretting asking in the first place, because she was fairly certain she knew how this story ended, it would explain a lot.

"May as well tell you the ending now. Nobody likes a cliff hanger." He said, almost sounding angry at her.

**TO be continued… TTFN**

**Next chapter will be up soon. Reviews make me smile!**


	3. Chapter 3

Jack POV

He took a moment to compose himself and picked up where he left off.

"The house was gone, well most of it anyway. All that was left was the structure basically. I spent over an hour digging through the rubble trying to find them, buy the time I managed to get to the upstairs apartments I'd lost every bit of hope I had. But I found them eventually… they were in our daughters' bedroom. Aurora was gone… but I found my wife underneath a wardrobe, it was probably the reason she survived. It shielded her from the fire, so she got away with only minor burns to her arms and legs."

He looked over at Gwen, he could see the tears she was sheading for his lost family, he wouldn't though, he'd shed enough tears over the centuries and besides, he like to remind him-self that they weren't even alive yet. Not really, it happened to this timeline yet.

"Who did it?" Gwen asked

"Someone who wanted revenge and they got it" He said not missing a beat

"But what would they want for?" Gwen pressed

"Because we stole something from them, something powerful, we didn't think they'd come after it."

He made the last turn on too Gwen's street and parked just outside her flat. It was eerily quiet on the deserted street, no lights, no people, just them. He looked over at Gwen and immediately knew she had more questions so he instead opened his door and walked around to her side of the car and opened her door for her.

They walked silently hand in hand up to her apartment building door, both of them oblivious to the person at the window watching their every move and seeing ones they didn't.

Gwen POV

Gwen got the key out to her flat after she realised from the lack of noise that Rhys was already in bed. She turned to look at him and gave him a half smile, her head slightly banging as she stood their craving the comfort of her bed.

"Guess I'll see you tomorrow." She said

"Why don't you take tomorrow off, you are recovering from a gunshot wound. And you could make up to Rhys for missing tonight."

Sensing he needed some time to himself she accepted with just a nod of her head.

"Goodnight Gwen." He started to walk away, when she remembered a question she had meant to ask.

"Jack" She nearly shouted

"Yeah?"

"What was her name?"

"Whose"

"Your wife, you never said her name." She replied softly

He briefly smiled at her before he answered.

"Fox, her name was Fox." And with that he walked away from her and everything he had just told her.

She had a bit of a limp when she walked towards the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water before she went to bed. As she climbed under the covers beside Rhys she wondered just how much Jack had left out of his story. She'd noticed his pauses and his quick cover ups when he nearly slipped out a word he wasn't supposed too. She wanted to know more, and she had so many questions about what he had just told her too, she'd ask him tomorrow she thought as she slipped into a dreamless sleep.

But she wouldn't ask him tomorrow; in fact the subject wouldn't come up until an old friend of Captain Jack's returned from the past or was it the future? Time travel is often confusing that way.

**I know a small chapter, but I had to get it out of the way. Up next, Captain John Hart is coming to spill some of Jacks secrets and some blood along the way. Will be a slighty AU Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and then the adventure begins!**

**Hopefully once this story gets going, you'll get to reviewing if you like it!**

**TTFN**


	4. Chapter 4

**Just a reminder; that Gwen never had the affair with Owen in this story.**

**As for this chapter, I've really only changed the conversations and have added a scene.**

Jack POV

Well, this certainly wasn't how he had expected his homecoming to be. Not even one hug, appalling! He knew they had a right to be angry, but it was just hard for him to look at them and not grab them all together in one big hug and then lock them all in the hub, to keep them safe. He'd seen all their dead bodies in the year that never was, the Master had made sure to torment him and that had been the worst torture of all. But here they were, all of them ignorant of what he had been through, and he would make sure it stayed that way. They never needed to know. He was pulled out of his thoughts by a rift monitor beeping and went over to see what they had. Oh how glad he was to be home.

He didn't believe his wrist strap actually was beeping, until Ianto mentioned it. He knew what it meant, another Time Agent was here on earth, in the same year as him and they knew he was here if the incoming message was any sign. His thoughts immediately jumped to Fox, she certainly had the resources at her disposal to locate him if she wanted too, but after how they had parted ways he found himself doubtful that she would want to. There was the second option of course; she had sent someone to bring him in, because she had found out how he had manipulated time events to con other Time Agents. He'd always wondered how that had never caught up with him. What other reason could there be?

His knuckles were sore from his fight with 'John', in no way was he a Captain. He gladly grabbed the bottle of liquor off the counter and took a swig, preparing for the conversation to come, only partially listening to what the man next to him was saying. Well he'd been wrong, and 'John' had been the furthest Time Agent he could imagine being here. He hated earth, why was he here? His mind was whirling with all the questions he had to ask about the future and everything that had happened since he'd been gone. But there was one in particular he really wanted an answer too.

"So, how's the Time Agency?" He inquired, smiling slightly at the memories that followed.

"You didn't hear? It's gone, it was destroyed. There are only a handful of us left now." John said, eyeing Jack carefully.

Well, he'd been wrong again, this really wasn't his day.

He had to swallow the bile that came up with the answer he had received; he was so entirely shocked that he didn't know what to say. But he knew what to ask.

"And Fox?" As he said this, he knew what the answer would be, because he knew her better than anyone else. The only way the Time Agency would've fallen, was if she hadn't been around to stop it. He knew it would've been over her dead body, literally.

"We think she was killed in the pulse blast, she was trapped inside at the time the base was attacked. The last communication we received from her was; to go too ground…"

John's voice held nothing but the same tone he always used. You wouldn't have thought he'd just told his ex-lover that his wife was dead.

"And you just left her there?" He asked in disbelief, struggling not to punch him again

He always knew there was no love lost between them, but to abandon another agent in a time of need wasn't how the Time Agency did things. Then again, 'John' had never been one to follow moral guidelines and Fox's dedication had always been something to admire about her.

"Well for one; she was the ranking officer in charge and those were her orders, and two; she sure as hell didn't deserve to be saved after what she did to you!" John replied angrily

With this Jack sighed and tried to figure out how to feel about his first wife's death. 'John' was right of course, after what she had done even he had wished death upon her, but he'd been angry but after his time with the Doctor and Rose it had put a lot of things in perspective. He'd accepted what she had done and had even been thinking of returning to the Time Agency, but then the Daleks had come and ruined everything, including the chance of ever seeing her again.

He didn't get to think on it any more though, because he saw John out of the corner of his eye, reach for his gun at the same time he heard, what was no doubt his team coming to 'rescue' him. This was a disaster waiting to happen.

He knew it was a bad idea to allow John in hub, but what if he was telling the truth. He had no choice but to assume that was the case, because he didn't know how many more surprises he could take. He actually felt like he could sleep what a rarity that was and what a pity he couldn't fulfil it.

He knew Gwen was behind him and he knew she was pissed. May God help him with the angry Welsh women standing in front of him, demanding answers he didn't want to give! He didn't get to tell her what he'd wanted to say to her since he'd seen her in that house, eyes like fire piercing into his soul when they captured his own. Instead, he'd found an engagement ring and forced himself to tell her the right thing. Or at least it had been right in theory.

"So, who is he then, I mean, other than someone you used to work with? At the, Time Agency is it? She continued before he could speak.

I guess that was the truth, from when you lied to me and said you worked for a travel agency." Her voice condescending

"Technically, I did travel so it wasn't so much as a lie, more like omitting certain details." He said, trying to act casual about it, like it was no big thing.

When she spoke again, her voice was back to its normal comforting tone.

"So if the Time Agency knew you were here, and what you told me about working with your wife was true, why didn't she come?" Her voice full of curiosity

"Because the Time Agency was destroyed, John came here on his own. And because Fox's dead, she was killed when the Time Agency went down. John and the other agents left her stranded there."

He didn't know why he was telling her, he just needed it off his chest if he were to guess. Telling Gwen made it real for him and helped him vent his anger.

"Oh shit, I mean, I'm sorry… I, are you okay?" Her voice full of concern

"I haven't seen her for such a long time, that I guess I always expected this. I mean no one lives forever, right?" His voice had been full of question when he said it, but they still managed to laugh at their private joke of the immortal man.

Gwen, obviously unsure of what to say or do, suggested they get to the conference room to get the investigation underway.

Gwen POV 

She hadn't really wanted to partner up with John, but her instincts had told her it would be a bad idea for him and Jack to be partners again, if Jacks reaction had been anything to go on. So here she was with a psychopath searching container after container looking for a bomb, and here she thought the evening would be dull.

"Don't trust him Gwen. You have no idea who he really is." John's voice, held nothing but certainty

"And why should I trust you, when you left Jack's wife to die?" She asked him, trying to take back control of the conversation.

He spun around obviously surprised she knew anything about that, when the others didn't. She watched as he eyed her up and down, his eyes guarded, unsure of what he was looking for; she chose to ignore it and continued looking for the right container, taking his silence as good reason not to trust him. When she heard the containers on her right side being opened, she knew he wouldn't bring up not trusting Jack again, as a topic for conversation between them.

When she found the right container, she alerted John and that was the worst mistake she could make, cause now she of no use to him.

John POV

He had been going to kill her, it would've been easy to over-power her and get her gun, but she had caught him off guard when she told him she knew of Fox. He'd been so sure the 'team' knew absolutely knew nothing of 'Jacks' past, because of their obvious interest in him and what he knew about their boss. So when Gwen alerted him to the fact she did know, that told him five things; one) she was closer to Jack than the others, possibly his lover, two) Jack had indeed hired her because of her uncanny resemblance to Fox, three) Jack trusted her, four ) she was of more use to him alive, in case he needed leverage, then she was dead, finally five) Jack would be extremely pissed if he killed her, and then he would never go with him to travel the stars again.

So the question was what to do with her?

He was sure of one thing though, he needed her out of the way.

He applied the paralysing lip gloss before he entered the correct container behind her and then proceeded to push her up against the wall and thoroughly kissed her, making sure the compound entered her mouth and into her system. When she pushed him off and asked him what the hell he was doing, he couldn't help but smile. He really was genius and couldn't have planned this better if he'd tried. He laughed manically, immediately alerting her to the fact something was wrong.

"Celebrating god you're so uptight on this planet."

"What did you do to me?" She said, as she slid down the wall.

He bent down and tapped at his lips.

"Paralysing lip gloss love, it won't kill you straight away, but it will kill your organs if that little team of yours doesn't find you quick enough." He was about to get up, but then realised there was something he wanted her to know.

"For the record, I let Jacks wife die because of what she did to him, but he didn't tell you that part, did he? You see, when she became a senior level Time Agent, Jack and I were partnered together. This was after Aurora died, and they were estranged, we became lovers and she didn't like that very much, that he was moving on from her. She tried everything to separate us and then one-day 'Jack' conveniently disappeared without a trace. And I knew that bitch had something to do with it!" He shouted at her, he started to pace angrily around the container, almost oblivious to the woman in front of him, whose eyes were wide with surprise.

He continued heatedly; "I tried, but they wouldn't listen to me. None of them, but I was right wasn't I? Then he turns up in the med bay, two-years later with no idea where he'd been and no clue of how he'd even gotten back home and there she was, playing the concerned wife card, taking him from me. I mean how dare her, after everything he'd done for her, how could she betray him like that?"

He knew he was getting to emotional, but it just angered him so much, knowing she was the reason him and his lover had been separated all this time, but she couldn't come between them anymore he'd made sure of that. It really had been clever on his part; he knew 'Jack' would have never come back to the Time Agency and that, that had been the reason he'd left in the dark of the night, so he'd made sure there wasn't a Time Agency there, made sure she wasn't there.

He'd made a deal with an old enemy of the agency, and gave them all the information they would need to infiltrate the base, the only thing he'd wanted in return had been Fox's death and a promise it would be extremely painful for her. Not that he'd be telling Jack that piece of information and he certainly wouldn't be telling the dying women in front of him, he knew better.

"So I knew that I had to find something, anything to connect her to his disappearance and I did. You know the funny thing; he still tried to defend her. He couldn't bring himself to believe hard proof that; she had sanctioned the classified mission he'd been on, and that when it went wrong she put out the order to stop the search for him. Claimed 'he'd deserted', but he found his way back. He went straight to her, he must've known something, something he wasn't supposed too and she so she ordered his memory be erased, 'for classified reasons' the documents said. Then she tried to act innocent, but I got the proof I needed to get Jack to confront her.

"He went to go see her and I never saw him again, till now. He didn't even say goodbye, so I knew that I'd been right and that she had broken him so much that he just had to leave in a hurry. But its okay cause I forgive him, I know it wasn't his fault." He could actually hear the insanity in his own voice for the first time in his life, but it wasn't his fault his love for Jack drove him to do untoward things to people. They were just casualties.

He squatted down a looked at the now laying down Gwen, she was beautiful and she was a good human being through and through, that was a rare thing to find anywhere in the universe. He was actually sorry she got caught up in this, but here was nothing he could do now. 'Yes there is' his mind yelled at him, but as usual he ignored it. Whether it was his conscious finally making it-self known or the tears rolling down the sides of her eyes, he bent down and kissed the side of her cheek. Gently and whispered in her ear…

"I really hope they do find you in time."

And with that he picked up his prize and left Gwen weeping silently in the darkness, hoping her to be found in time.

**To be continued… I hope you liked it.**

**I certainly enjoyed writing this chapter. Coming up; Will Jack find out the truth or will John get away?**

**Please Review.**


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